US teens tutor peers online to fill need during pandemic

Goyal, 17, giving an online math tutoring session to a junior high student in Plano, Texas. She is part of a group of high school students that put together their own volunteer online tutoring service to help k-12 during the pandemic. — AP

SANTA FE, New Mexico: When her suburban Dallas high school was forced to move online last spring because of the coronavirus pandemic, Charvi Goyal realised that the schoolmates she’d been informally tutoring between classes would still need extra help but wouldn’t necessarily be able to get it. So she took her tutoring online, as well.

Goyal, a 17-year-old high school junior from Plano, roped in three classmates to create TutorScope, a free tutoring service run by high schoolers for other kids, including younger ones. What started with a handful of instructors helping friends’ siblings in their hometown has blossomed into a group of 22 tutors from Texas, Arizona, and Ohio that has helped more than 300 students from as far away as South Korea.